Outdoors: Thompson/Center Arms spirit lives on

Friday

Dec 7, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Mark Blazis Outdoors

Next Monday’s opening of the primitive firearms season is certain to provide many exciting tales for those who have waited all year to hunt deer with black powder. Few will top the dramatic story of iconic New England muzzleloader maker Thompson/Center Arms. Its saga could be a heart-wrenching movie, spiced with big money, enviable success and small-town tragedy.

The basic plot: In 1965, a little Franklin, N.H., company pioneered the production of the uniquely designed Contender, a break-open, interchangeable-barrel pistol possessing rifle-like accuracy. Shortly after, in 1970, founders Warren Center and K.W. Thompson would spark a resurgence of interest in black-powder weapons with their introduction of the beautiful and vastly popular Hawken rifle. The innovative fledgling company would subsequently gain national notoriety, making some of the finest muzzleloaders in the world.

Thompson/Center survived a devastating factory fire in 1996, but couldn’t withstand purchase and acquisition by corporative giant Smith & Wesson, located in Springfield. Workers from Springfield were brought up to New Hampshire to be trained by the longtime, skilled, loyal and dedicated employees, some of whom knew their jobs were going to be taken by the big-city apprentices they were teaching.

The story of the New Hampshire workers’ courtesy to the visiting apprentices and sincere efforts to instill in them the Thompson/Center philosophy of quality American craftsmanship reveal much about their character, belief and pride in their product. The Franklin workers epitomized what made-in-America can mean.

Everyone I talked to from the original team at T/C in New Hampshire said the company was like a family, many having worked loyally there a good part of their lives. Some were offered the opportunity to uproot and move to the city. Many with small-town roots just couldn’t do that. Many others not offered the chance to move had to go on to other jobs.

But when you talk to them today, though dealt a bad hand, they admirably still convey a proud belief in the quality of the T/C product and want the company to continue to succeed. They hope Smith & Wesson will maintain the high standards that, from the start, were at the core of the T/C tradition and its success.

Many gun lovers have expressed skepticism about T/C’s future. That’s not unjustified, considering the evolution of many corporate takeovers.

Smith & Wesson, founded in 1852 by Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, has been for much of its history one of the world’s greatest producers of pistols and revolvers, its weapons being used by police and military all over the globe. The Civil War fortuitously catapulted the firm to financial success, as it had brilliantly purchased from genius gunsmith-inventor Rollin White the patent rights of his revolutionary bored revolver cylinder using self-contained metal cartridges. Highly innovative over the years, it subsequently introduced at least 15 ammunition types and no less than 50 pistols and revolvers.

The company has been in a position to display philanthropy, especially helpful to the local community. It has onsite a priceless museum of firearms and related paintings. But hard times would hit the giant and allegedly affect the quality of its production.

With Wesson family ownership and control ending in 1964, Smith & Wesson has ridden waves of quality and profit challenges posed by several owners, some non-American. They would have some success with military rifles and produce a limited number of submachine guns. They ventured into the shotgun business, experiencing safety issues with rupturing barrels and later briefly outsourced production to Japan before new ownership forced a return to their best source of profit — handguns.

They painfully experienced and survived a 40 percent sales drop as a result of boycotts of their products encouraged by gun clubs and gun rights groups, who objected to their agreeing to several safety and design standards encouraged by the Clinton administration. The fact they have diversified to produce bicycles, flashlights, grills and even footwear, has led some to wonder about their focus and absolute commitment to gun quality.

I hoped to see for myself which direction Smith & Wesson, and especially Thompson/Center, were headed. Smith & Wesson executive Paul Pluff recently guided me through the well-guarded production plant, off limits without invitation.

I was amazed by Smith & Wesson’s vast size, diversity and particularly its heavy investment in the most modern firearms production machinery. Its state-of-the-art equipment is now capable of incredible, consistent microtolerances of measurement to produce muzzleloaders of greatest quality and highest accuracy.

Its Encore Pro Hunter, which I use, and which Jim Shockey has made famous in his nationally televised hunts, is arguably the finest and most versatile black-powder weapon in the world. With interchangeable barrel capabilities, it can even be converted to a true rifle with little time or effort. It has recoil reduction features to minimize shoulder pain and flinching tendencies. I’ve downed deer as far away as 175 yards with it.

My favorite innovative feature of the Encore, though, is its speed breech that obviates the need for interminable turns to open up the rear of the barrel for cleaning.

The one thing I’ve always disliked about muzzleloading is the need to clean one’s gun right after each shot. Those who don’t do so quickly find how dangerously corrosive black powder is. Their weapons soon seize up and become inoperable. T/C’s new development requiring just a one-quarter turn by hand makes cleaning much easier and quicker, prolonging the life of the gun.

T/C also has relieved the rifling at the tip of the barrel to make loading easier. The saboted bullet seats easily and quickly in the muzzle for quick ramming down the barrel. A swing hammer has been designed to make it easier to cock when a scope is mounted.

Pluff is a crack shot and internationally televised hunter, highly respectful of great guns, our hunting tradition, and the quality of what his company makes. He convinced me Smith & Wesson is headed in the right direction.